Table 31— the muscles from the side and back

Each of these historical engravings is printed in UV resistant ink on 45 lb matte paper.

Two sizes are available:48 inches by 74 inches24 inches by 36 inches

Free UPS Ground delivery is included in the purchase price.

A life size print

Taken from a high resolution scan of the 1873 edition of Tabulae anatomicae, the detail of these drawings is amazing even when blown up to a little over 6 feet tall. 465 years after they were first drawn, these etchings remain one of the most beautiful and accurate renderings of human anatomy.

These illustrations were drawn at the direction of a surgeon as he dissected a cadaver, then etched into plates and printed in books made one at a time on a hand operated press. The color in each book was hand painted.

These prints are offered as a complement to my mosaic series

Using marble, stone and precious gems I am creating a series of 14 mosaics that replicate Bartolomeo Eustachi’s 16th Century anatomical engravings. For more details about the Anatomy Set in Stone project, visit this page on my site.

Who was Bartolomeo Eustachi?

Bartolomeo Eustachi, one of the first modern anatomists, is also considered the first comparative anatomist, as he was the first to use examples from the animal realm for comparison and clarity. Eustachi was a contemporary of Vesalius, and they share the credit of having created the science of human anatomy. In 1552 (nine years after Vesalius published his Fabrica) Eustachi completed a series of anatomical illustrations so accurate that had they been published in his lifetime, a modern understanding of anatomy might have come to pass two centuries before it was attained.

Sadly, all but eight of the drawings were lost for 162 years following his death. The engravings were re-discovered in the early eighteenth century and purchased by Pope Clement XI, who gave them to his physician Giovanni Maria Lancisi. Lancisi, a successor to Eustachi in the chair of anatomy at the Sapienza, published the plates in 1714 as Tabulae anatomicae Bartholomaei Eustachi quas a tenebris tandem vindicatas (Anatomical Illustrations of Bartholomeo Eustachi Rescued from Obscurity).